


to see the world

by desastrista



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, lots of cameos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-28
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-08-11 13:49:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7895032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/desastrista/pseuds/desastrista
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Captive Prince Week Day 8 - Anything Goes! </p><p>Erasmus made a pledge to see the world. But when he happens to reunite with his childhood friend Kallias, he starts to reconsider.</p>
            </blockquote>





	to see the world

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not a flight attendant so sorry if I get things wrong -- I tried to do some research but there's a difference between "reading someone's blog about working this job" vs. "have actually worked at this job".

It was past midnight by the time Erasmus got home. His feet were killing him from standing up all day on that international flight. He wanted nothing more than to throw himself on his bed and sleep until morning. 

But his eyes caught the map that he had placed up on the wall when he first took the job. It was a map of the world. When he first bought it, it was blank; now, about half the countries were filled in. Erasmus walked over to the map and found Cortoza. Taking a marker from the dresser, he delicately colored in the country. He did a quick count of the countries again. 

He was now, officially, exactly halfway there. 

He took a seat on the side of the bed and gaze up at the map sleepily. Before Erasmus became a flight attendant, he had never left Akielos. But he had wanted to see the world, he said, and now he was halfway there. And even halfway was more than most people got.

He wished he felt more excited about this milestone. 

 

****** 

 

Erasmus did not like layovers in Ios. That was unfortunate for him – the city was a hub for the airline he worked at and layovers there were common. But Erasmus had grown up in Ios. He had left for college, though, and then his parents had moved only a few years after that. Layovers in the city were an uncomfortable reminder that he had spent years living there but now knew almost no one there. 

Thankfully, today he was only supposed to be in Ios for a few hours before catching a flight to the distant-but-no-longer-exotic-since-everyone-flew-there Vaskian Empire. But when he heard the sound of rain starting to pater against the window and the radar showed massive storm clouds heading towards Ios, Erasmus knew he was going to be grounded here a lot longer than planned. He swore under his breath. There were some bars and restaurants in this airport. Decent food, nothing particularly special. At this point, Erasmus knew the routine. Find the nearest place with even somewhat comfortable seats. Sit under some harsh fluorescent lights. Watch the same five news stories on all the TV screens. Charge his phone. Wait for the updated flight information. Erasmus looked out the window again. The rain was coming down hard. 

Erasmus pulled up the name and locations of a few bars not too far from the airport. It was a bit early to be drinking, but the thought of waiting several hours for a plane gave the idea a certain appeal. One of the bars had a familiar sounding name – although he could not have placed it if he had tried – and he started to make his way to the taxis. Anything for a change of scenery. 

 

***** 

 

Erasmus thought he might recognize the bar, but when he walked in he realized he had never been there before. The music was playing so loudly and the windows were so small, though, that it was easy to forget there was a storm raging outside. Instead the bar just felt – peaceful. It was a good place to forget there was an outside world at all. 

Erasmus took a seat and tried to signal the bartender, whose back was to the door. When he finally did turn around, before Erasmus could say anything, he just asked, in confusion, “Erasmus? Is that you?” 

Erasmus just blinked once and then twice. Then the recognition hit him, and he made a surprised noise. “Kallias!” he said. Kallias leaned over the bar and gave him a quick hug. “Man,” Erasmus said. “It’s been ages. How have you been?” 

Kallias shrugged. “Can’t complain. Anything I can get you?” 

“How about a retsina,” Erasmus said. 

Kallias started pouring the drink. He waved a hand when Erasmus offered up his card. “On the house,” he said. 

“Sure your boss will approve?” Erasmus asked, as he took a sip. 

That got a laugh from Kallias. “I’m the boss here,” he said. “Or at least, my dad’s the owner. I’ll be fine, just as long as I don’t start giving away drinks to just anyone.” 

Well, Erasmus found himself thinking, that explained how he recognized the bar. Kallias’s family name. It had just been so long since he had seen his friend that he had forgotten it.

“Sounds like a good gig,” Erasmus said, half to himself. 

“What have you been up to?” Kallias asked. The bar was basically empty – there were two patrons on the far right of the bar, but they did not look like they needed anything, so Kallias was free to spend the time with Erasmus. 

“Flight attendant,” Erasmus said. “Just flew in, but my flight going out of Ios got delayed. It’s going to be a few hours.” 

Kallias looked impressed. “I remember you in high school,” he said. “Always talking about seeing the world. I’m impressed. You’re living your dream.” Erasmus thought about how he had felt, staring at the map that night. He gave a weak smile. He wished he still felt the enthusiasm that Kallias remembered him of him. Kallias continued, “Got any good stories from your travels?” 

It was a question Erasmus got a lot. He always had a few stories he went back to. The perfect white of the sand on the beaches of Isthima. The intricate patterning on the walls at the palace of Arles. He’d talked about the subject a thousand times, but for some reason he could not bring himself to give those canned responses to Kallias. 

“I had to stop a couple having sex in the bathroom on a plane last week,” he said, with a crooked smile. “They still barely kept their hands off each other, even when I made them go back to their seats.” (Erasmus still remembered the couple, the younger one with curly brown hair and the older one looking embarrassed but very happy – and the guy who sat next to them, complaining as they returned back “You two are the worst” just to be greeted with a good-natured “Shut up, Orlant”.) It had provided a good laugh for the crew. 

Kallias laughed. “Do you run into that problem a lot?” 

“Not as often as people think,” Erasmus said with a shake of his head. He found himself smiling. He realized suddenly that he hadn’t told anyone who wasn’t part of that crew about that story. He used to share everything with Kallias. And then the two of them graduated, promised to keep in touch, and somehow – it fell through. And here they were. “I’m sure you’ve got some good stories too, working here,” Erasmus said.

“Oh,” Kallias said, and his smile turned wicked. “The things this bar has seen.” 

They kept sharing stories, and by the time Erasmus got the notification that the departure time had been set for his flight, he was wishing he could spend a lot longer at the bar. “Here,” he said, on a whim, just after he had called a taxi, “Let me give you my number.” 

He only looked at his phone again when it was almost time to depart. There was one message from an unknown number. “Good to see you again,” it said. “Hope you stop by the bar again.” The message ended with a wink. Erasmus smiled to himself. 

Maybe delays in Ios weren’t so bad after all. 

 

****** 

 

Erasmus remembered being in high school and telling everyone his plans to travel the world. He loved literature, and he always wanted to go visit the places he read about in poems or books. The first year of being a flight attendant, he’d hurriedly signed up for every trip he could think of with some literary reference and dutifully taken photo after photo. But after a few years, the magic had worn off, and then it was just another job.

He felt that sense of wonder again, as he texted Kallias about his flights. It wasn’t about the sites, this time. It was the stories he got to share. 

The day that he was supposed to fly out of the Vaskian Empire, the airport shut down for a few hours – apparently the Empress wanted to fly that day, and she wanted to fly with her panthers. Erasmus watched as everyone scrambled to try to figure out how to accommodate two big jungle cats on a commercial airline. He texted Kallias about it the whole time, while Kallias responded with some suggestions for bad patrons he knew who could be fed to the panthers. (“I had to issue a warning about this asshole named Govart,” he said. “Got into a fight once, paid with a bad check the other time. If you ever meet anyone with that name in Ios, run. Don’t ask questions. Just run.”) 

Then there was the time Erasmus flew to Patras, and a much older man whistled at him before stepping in to an unmarked vehicle. (“I think a diplomat just hit on me,” he texted Kallias. “You could cause an international incident!” Kallias had responded back enthusiastically. “I’ve always wanted to do that.”) 

He added a few more countries to his map. But he smiled as he filled them in now. They weren’t just checkmarks anymore – they were filled with memories. Goofy photos he sent to Kallias. Checking his phone and seeing Kallias go on a rant about the bachelor party the bar had hosted with a guy who would not stop talking about his uncle’s griva. 

More and more, Erasmus found himself arranging his schedule around layovers in Ios. 

 

******* 

 

A month and a half after Erasmus had first stopped in Kallias’s bar, he spent the night in Ios – and he spent it getting dinner with Kallias and then making out in Kallias’s car. He spent the night with Kallias, and it was nothing at all like what they did when they were kids. 

He tried to arrange longer and longer stays in Ios, but it was difficult. Of course Kallias was understanding, but for Erasmus it started to take its toll. Sometimes he would just look at the last message that Kallias sent and his chest ached. They tried to make it work. Erasmus soon knew the timezone of everywhere relative to Ios, and he developed opinions on every major videoconferencing technology out there. 

But it still wasn’t enough. So after several months, when he’d saved up enough vacation days, Erasmus took a week off work and spent it in Ios. The first night that he was there, he and Kallias went out to dinner. It was the first time they had seen each other in person in months. 

“I’ve been thinking,” Erasmus said, just after the drinks arrived. (And just after Kallias said the bartender here “lacked imagination.”) “I’m not – I’m not sure I want to be a flight attendant anymore.”

Kallias looked surprised. “You always seem to be having so much fun,” he said. “Jet-setting, traveling from country to country. It’s luxurious.” 

“Nothing says luxury like fishing couples out of the airport bathroom,” Erasmus scoffed. It had happened to him again, this time in first class – a famous athlete and his model boyfriend, who didn’t even appear to speak the same language, so Erasmus and a Veretian flight attendant were called in to explain the consequences to them twice over. 

But his voice turned serious. “I think I’ve just been – I’ve been trapping myself, saying that this was a dream I’d had for so long. It’s not my dream anymore. I want – there’s so much stuff I gave up for this job.” He shook his head with a bitter laugh. “Do you know, I wanted to get a dog? But I looked at my schedule and I was gone for so long – I just decided I couldn’t do that to a dog. And that’s just a dog! Anyone else – family, friends, a boyfriend,” he put the emphasis on that last word. “I think some people find ways to manage all that, but I just – I couldn’t stay in one place long enough to cultivate those, not really. And since I met you – that’s when I realized that.” 

Kallias still looked skeptical. “Maybe,” he conceded, “I guess when you’re dreaming, you don’t think through those kinds of things. But Erasmus,” his voice sounded suddenly pained, “I’m – I’m jealous of you. I stayed behind in Ios. And look at me – I consider myself adventurous if I go to a different neighborhood for dinner. You’ve gotten to see the world. And you want to give all that up?” 

Erasmus felt a strange heaviness in his chest. It was difficult to say the words out loud. “I think I’d be okay with traveling less if – if I had someone to travel with. Kallias, I’ve been thinking – there’s nothing keeping me where I am now. I’m thinking – if it’s not too soon or anything – I might move to Ios.” 

Kallias did not say anything for a minute. Erasmus continued, feeling suddenly self-conscious, “I’ve been thinking about other stuff I could do, and I always liked taking care of the passengers on the plane, so maybe hospitality or something --” 

“You would do that? For me?” Kallias said. He was wearing an expression of complete disbelief. There was a slight croak in his voice as he spoke. “Erasmus,” he said, “That’s such a big change, are you sure –.” 

Erasmus reached out to hold Kallias’s hand. “I’m sure,” he said. “You talk about how you never go anywhere but – I’d rather see Ios with you than the rest of the world by myself.” 

They spent the rest of the week exploring the city. Erasmus had forgotten so much about what he used to love about Ios. But none of it compared to how it felt to hold Kallias’s hand, to have him point out something that Erasmus would never have noticed, and to not feel – hurried. There was no plane Erasmus had to catch in an hour. No long trip in the morning he had to be well rested for. There was only the two of them.

When the week was over, Erasmus put in his notice and started to pack up his apartment for the move. He gave a long glance at the map he’d made when it was time to take it down. He’d managed to do well for himself. But now it was time for a new map. This one with Kallias.


End file.
